New Zealand - Cultural life | history - geography | Britannica.com Cultural life William Ferguson Massey Cultural milieu New Zealand’s cultural influences are predominantly European and Maori . Immigrant groups have generally tended to assimilate into the European lifestyle, although traditional customs are still followed by many Tongans, Samoans, and other Pacific peoples. Maori culture suffered greatly in the years of colonization and into the 20th century, and many Maori were torn between the pressure to assimilate and the desire to preserve their own culture. However, since the 1950s there has been a cultural renaissance, with a determined effort to preserve and revive artistic and social traditions. The culture of the pakeha (the Maori term for those of European descent) has come to incorporate many aspects of Maori culture. The biennial Te Matatini festival, first held in 1972, celebrates Maori culture, especially the traditional dance and song performances known as kapa haka . The festival is held over several days, each time in a different region of New Zealand, and culminates in the national kapa haka championship.

Maori King Tuheitia Paki sitting on the throne at his coronation at Ngaruawahia, near Hamilton, New … AP The state has moved progressively to assist and encourage the arts. Creative New Zealand, the national agency for arts funding, gives annual grants in support of theatre , music, modern dance and ballet , opera , and literature . In addition, New Zealand was one of the first countries to establish a fund to compensate writers for the loss of royalties on books borrowed from libraries rather than purchased. The national orchestra is supported by the government through the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. The government also provides taxation and other incentives for the motion-picture industry, and New Zealand-made films have received growing international recognition. Daily life and social customs The Maori culture has seen a renaissance in wood carving and weaving and in the construction of carved and decorated meeting houses (whare whakairo). Maori waiata (songs) and dances have become increasingly popular, especially among the young. Maori meetings—whether hui (assemblies) or tangi (funeral gatherings)—are conducted in traditional fashion, with ancient greeting ceremonies strictly observed.

Waves of migrants have also brought different cultures that are celebrated in a variety of ways—for example, in annual festivals such as the Chinese Lantern Festival and Lunar New Year and the Indian festival Diwali . Maori performing kapa haka near Wellington, New Zealand. Photograph: Nick Servian Photography. Carvings in front of a Maori meetinghouse in New Zealand. © Sam D. Cruz /Shutterstock.com Rakaia River New Zealand cuisine has also been influenced by the foods of immigrants and the expectations of international tourists. It was originally a combination of traditional British dishes with local delicacies. Fresh seafood was popular along the coasts; mutton , venison , and meat pies were common. Pavlova, a sweet meringue dish, was and remains a popular dessert . Food, however, has become more imaginative and cosmopolitan , and there are many restaurants , bistros, and cafés in the major cities and towns that present a range of classic and ethnic menus. A traditional Maori meal is hangi, a feast of meat, seafood, and vegetables steamed for hours in an earthen oven (umu). New Zealand celebrates a number of national public holidays .

Waitangi Day —February 6, the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840)—is considered the country’s national day. Commemorations are centred on Waitangi but are held throughout the country. Public celebrations include Maori ceremonies as well as sporting events, music, and parades. With the increasing attention paid to Maori history and culture, Waitangi Day has also become an occasion for reflection on the historical effects of European settlement on the indigenous people. Another, more sombre, public holiday is ANZAC Day —April 25, the day in 1915 when amphibious New Zealand and Australian (ANZAC) forces landed at the Gallipoli Peninsula ( Turkey ) and began one of the iconic battles of World War I . The holiday honours those who have served in New Zealand’s military forces, especially those killed in war. A Maori women’s choir performing on Waitangi Day. © Kenneth William Caleno/Shutterstock.com Oceania: Fact or Fiction? The arts in New Zealand have been strongly influenced by the desire to establish a national identity distinct from that of other cultures.

Numerous writers were active in the late 19th century, the most successful of whom were historians, such as William Pember Reeves , and ethnologists, including S. Percy Smith and Elsdon Best. The work of the first genuinely original New Zealand writers, the short-story author Katherine Mansfield and the poet R.A.K. Mason, did not appear until the 1920s. In the 1930s, during the harsh years of the Great Depression , a group of poets appeared and established a national tradition of writing. Although influenced by contemporary English literature — T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden were greatly respected—they wrote about their New Zealand experience. The most-notable member of this group was Allen Curnow . A.R.D. Fairburn, Denis Glover, and Charles Brasch were other major poets. At the same time, Frank Sargeson began writing the superb stories in the New Zealand vernacular for which he became well known. Film director Jane Campion, 2003.

Steve Sands—New York Newswire/Corbis Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest The work of those pioneering writers was followed by that of such widely published and acclaimed poets as James K. Baxter , Kendrick Smithyman, Ian Wedde, and Elizabeth Smither. A number of novelists have also earned international reputations, notably Janet Frame , Keri Hulme , Sylvia Ashton-Warner , Lloyd Jones, and mystery writer Ngaio Marsh . Authors Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace explored the intersection of Maori and pakeha culture. Poet Hone Tuwhare has achieved an international reputation. Those and other New Zealand writers were greatly aided by the growth of the publishing industry in New Zealand. The first painter to achieve international recognition, Frances Hodgkins, spent most of her life abroad. In the 1960s, however, an unprecedented art scene began to emerge, created initially by a group of artists, including Colin McCahon and Don Binney, who were helped by the rise of commercial galleries in most large towns and cities. Although New Zealand is often the subject of those paintings, they clearly reflect international influences. That group paved the way for what has become a small legion of artists.

Since the late 20th century, Maori arts have experienced growing popularity, and works of visual art are prominently displayed in numerous galleries and museums. Nga Uri o Hinetuparimaunga (2005), a Maori-themed sculpture by Chris … Courtesy, Hamilton City Council In the 1970s and ’80s, professional theatre companies—including Downstage in Wellington and the Mercury in Auckland—rose to prominence in the major cities, and they have since been joined or succeeded by a number of small, more experimental companies. A national symphony orchestra tours within New Zealand and internationally, and most towns have musical groups or orchestras that play locally. New Zealand singers who garnered an international following include Dame Kiri Te Kanawa , Inia Te Wiata, and Donald McIntyre. Popular music has a long history and was dominated in the late 20th and early 21st centuries by such artists as brothers Neil and Tim Finn and their bands Split Enz and Crowded House, Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga, and the hip-hop rapper Scribe. Kiri Te Kanawa as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro.

© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis German Chain of Command in Western Europe, June 1944 New Zealand has a well-developed film industry, and the country has been the setting for a number of films by international directors who took advantage of the local scenery, skilled production workers, and government tax concessions . The films of New Zealand directors Jane Campion and Peter Jackson had notable success around the world; Campion’s The Piano (1993) and Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–03) in particular received much acclaim. The work of actors Sam Neill, Anna Paquin , Lucy Lawless , and New Zealand-born Australian Russell Crowe has been recognized internationally. Cultural institutions New Zealand has numerous museums , including Te Papa Tongarewa, the country’s national museum. Te Papa’s exhibits focus on themes of national and natural history, including a re-created island, complete with wildlife, and an art collection. There are also a number of notable local and regional museums, such as the Auckland Museum, the Otago Museum (Dunedin), and the Waikato Museum (Hamilton).

Theatre is a vital part of the country’s culture, and in 1970 the government founded the New Zealand Drama School. The New Zealand Opera Company performs in the main cities. The Waikato Museum, on the Waikato River, Hamilton, New Zealand. Courtesy, Hamilton City Council Sports and recreation Sports are the main leisure-time activity of more than half the population . There is widespread participation in most major sports, particularly rugby football , which is played by both men’s and women’s teams. The inaugural World Cup of rugby, which New Zealand cohosted in 1987, was won by the country’s national team, the All Blacks . (New Zealand also hosted the seventh Rugby World Cup in 2011.) The opening of each All Black match is highlighted by the players’ performance of the haka known as “Ka Mate,” a traditional Maori chant accompanied by rhythmic movements, stamping, and fierce gestures. Notable players include Colin Meads , who participated in 55 Test matches for the All Blacks. Women’s netball has become a popular participatory and spectator sport , as has basketball .

New Zealand made its Olympic debut at the 1908 Games in London, where it competed with Australia on the Australasian team. There the country captured its first medal, a bronze in the 3,500-metre walk. New Zealand competed separately at the 1920 Antwerp Games. The country has had notable success in Olympic track-and-field events. Jack Lovelock set a world record in the 1,500-metre race at the 1936 Berlin Games, and in 1952 at Helsinki long-jumper Yvette Williams became the first female New Zealander to win Olympic gold. The climate and the variety of terrain allow for year-round activity in many sports. Mountaineering and hiking are popular outdoor activities. The country has extensive skiing facilities, especially on South Island . Sailing is also popular, particularly around Auckland Harbour; New Zealand won its first America’s Cup yachting race in 1996. Adventure sports have long been common on the islands, and in the late 20th century New Zealand helped popularize bungee jumping . Climber standing above Franz Josef Glacier, Westland National Park, New Zealand.

age fotostock/SuperStock Learn about bungee jumping in New Zealand. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Several natural and cultural areas have been designated UNESCO World Heritage sites . Te Wahipounamu (South West New Zealand), a 10,000-square-mile (26,000-square-km) expanse of near-pristine land on South Island, encompasses glaciers , rainforest , beaches , and mountains and is home to many ancient plant and animal species. Aoraki/Mount Cook , Fiordland , Westland Tai Poutini , and Mount Aspiring national parks are within its borders. On North Island , Tongariro National Park is also a World Heritage site. It was originally located on land inhabited by the Maori since their arrival in New Zealand and granted by them to the crown in 1887, and it has since expanded and now covers an area of some 300 square miles (800 square km). Its borders include Mount Ruapehu and other mountains of great cultural and religious importance to Maori culture. Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Mirko Thiessen Media and publishing Newspapers in New Zealand provide a high standard of reporting, with substantial coverage of world news provided largely by foreign agencies . No daily paper has a national circulation, but some that originate in the large cities are distributed widely over their respective islands. Some prominent daily newspapers are the New Zealand Herald and the Dominion Post ( North Island ) and The Press ( South Island ). Numerous local and regional dailies are also published. Commercial and privately owned radio stations and television channels, including satellite and cable networks, compete with state-owned networks. All forms of media maintain an online presence. History Discovery No precise archaeological records exist of when and from where the first human inhabitants of New Zealand came, but it is generally agreed that Polynesians from eastern Polynesia in the central Pacific reached New Zealand in the early 13th century. There has been much speculation on how these people made the long ocean voyage. People from Polynesia are known to have sometimes set sail in search of new lands, their canoes well provisioned with food and plants for cultivation, and it is likely that the discoverers of New Zealand were on such a voyage.

It is probable that few canoes made the dangerous journey, but the people from even one of these large double-hulled craft could have produced the Maori population that the Europeans encountered in New Zealand in the 17th and 18th centuries. With them they brought the dog and the rat and several plants, including the kumara (a variety of sweet potato), taro, and yam. The Polynesian period, prior to the arrival of Europeans, has been divided into an early “Archaic” phase, with primarily coastal settlements and an economy based on hunting, especially of moas (flightless birds), fishing, and limited crop cultivation, and a later “Classic” phase, characterized by a movement inland, the building of lightly defended villages, and the extensive cultivation of gardens. Another approach to Maori history divides the period into a “colonization,” a “transitional,” and a “traditional” phase. Colonization, when the new arrivals settled in base camps along the coasts and exploited the abundant animal food resources, lasted until about 1400.

The transitional phase—marked by a growth in population, a shift to a fish, shellfish, and plant diet, the emergence of food-storage pits, and changing art forms—lasted until about 1600. And the traditional phase—during which inland villages were built, artifacts of bone, wood, and stone became more common, and gardening was commonplace—lasted until the arrival of Europeans. In the South Island , if not elsewhere, the first Polynesian settlers found moas in immense numbers on tussock grasslands. These served as their major food supply and had become extinct by the 15th century. The 18th-century Maori population was densest in the warmer northern parts of the country, where the Maori variant of Polynesian culture had reached its high point, particularly in the arts of war, canoe construction, building, weaving, and agriculture. The first European to arrive in New Zealand was a Dutch sailor, Abel Janszoon Tasman , who sighted the coast of Westland (northwestern South Island) in December 1642. His sole attempt to land brought only a clash with a South Island tribe during which several of his men were killed.

After his voyage the western coast of New Zealand became a line upon European charts and was thought of as the possible western edge of a great southern continent. In 1769–70 the British naval officer and explorer James Cook completed Tasman’s work by circumnavigating the two major islands and charting them with a remarkable degree of accuracy. His initial contact with the Maori was violent, but harmonious relations were established later. On this and on subsequent voyages, Cook, with the explorer and naturalist Joseph Banks , made the first systematic observations of Maori life and culture. Cook’s journal, published as A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World (1777), brought the knowledge of a new land to Europeans. He stressed the intelligence of the natives and the suitability of the country for colonization, and soon colonists as well as other discoverers followed Cook to the islands he had made known. James Cook. Photos.com/Thinkstock Early European settlement Apart from convicts escaping from Australia and shipwrecked or deserting sailors seeking asylum with Maori tribes, the first Europeans in New Zealand were in search of profits—from sealskins, timber, New Zealand flax (genus Phormium), and whaling .

Australian firms set up tiny settlements of land-based bay whalers, and Kororareka (now called Russell ), in the northeastern North Island , became a stopping place for American, British, and French deep-sea whalers. Traders supplying whalers drew Maori into their economic activity, buying provisions and supplying trade goods, implements , muskets, and rum. Initially the Maori welcomed the newcomers; while the tribes were secure, the European was a useful dependent. Maori went overseas, some as far as England. A northern chief, Hongi Hika, amassed presents in England and exchanged them in Australia for muskets; back in New Zealand he waged devastating war on traditional enemies. The use of firearms spread southward; a series of tribal wars, spreading from north to south, displaced populations and disturbed landholdings, especially in the Waikato, Taranaki, and Cook Strait areas. Europeans soon founded colonies in these unsettled regions. Missionaries quickly followed the traders. Between 1814 and 1838, Anglicans, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics set up mission stations.

Conversion was initially slow, but by the mid-19th century most Maori were adherents, for varying reasons, of some form of Christianity. All of these newcomers had a profound effect on Maori life. Warfare and disease reduced numbers, while new values, pursuits, and beliefs modified tribal structures. Christianity cut across the sanctions and prohibitions that had supplied Maori social cohesion. A capitalist economy, to which Maori were introduced both by traders offering new inducements (for instance, the brief demand for New Zealand flax) and by missionaries bringing new agricultural techniques, affected the whole material basis of life. At first in the north and later over the whole country, a process of adjustment began, which has continued to the present day. By the late 1830s, chiefly through the Australian link, New Zealand had been joined to Europe. Settlers numbered at least some hundreds, and there were certain to be more. Colonization schemes were afoot in Great Britain, and Australian graziers were buying land from the Maori. These circumstances determined British policy. Annexation and further settlement In 1838 the British government decided upon at least partial annexation.

In 1839 it commissioned William Hobson, a naval officer, as lieutenant governor and consul to the Maori chiefs, and he annexed the whole country: the North Island by the right of cession from the Maori chiefs and the South Island by the right of discovery. At first New Zealand was legally part of the New South Wales colony (in Australia), but in 1841 it became a separate crown colony, and Hobson was named governor. Before declaring the annexation of New Zealand, Hobson went through a process of discussion with the northern chiefs from which emerged the Treaty of Waitangi (February 1840). Under the Treaty the Maori ceded kawanatanga (translated as “sovereignty,” but its meaning is much debated) to the crown in return for protection and guaranteed possession of their lands; they also agreed to sell land only to the crown. Hobson promised an investigation into past “sales” of land to private individuals to ensure fair dealing. This treaty imposed a strong moral obligation upon the British government to act as guardian of the Maori. Even before annexation was proclaimed, planning for the first English colony had begun.

The New Zealand Company , founded in 1839 to colonize on the principles laid down by Edward Gibbon Wakefield , sent a survey ship, the Tory, in May 1839. The agents on board were to buy land in both islands around Cook Strait. The company moved hastily because its founders were aware that British annexation was likely and would entail a crown monopoly of land sales and a consequent increase in price. Purchases were effected in great haste before Hobson could bring to an end such private transactions. Little effort was made to seek out the true Maori owners; this would have been difficult anyway, as Maori ownership was communal and titles had been disturbed by the warfare of the preceding quarter century. The company, combining skillful propaganda with outright trickery and brutality, enforced its claim to the land upon which New Plymouth , Wanganui , and Wellington in the North Island and Nelson in the South Island were founded in the 1840s. Later, through the crown, it secured other areas in the South Island where Otago (1848) and Canterbury (1850) were settled by separate associations.

Meanwhile, Hobson moved the seat of government south from the Bay of Islands , bringing Auckland into existence (1840). In the early 1840s settlement and government began to alarm the Maori. In the Cook Strait area a formidable chief, Te Rauparaha, obstructed settlement. Near the Bay of Islands there was open warfare, and Kororareka was repeatedly raided. Neither Hobson (who died in 1842) nor his successor, Robert FitzRoy , was able to overcome the Maori. George (later Sir George) Grey , who became governor in 1845, had money and troops and the will to use them. His victories brought a peace that lasted from 1847 until 1860. Hone Heke, the principal leader in the north, was thoroughly defeated (1846), and in the south a likely uprising was prevented. Ethnic strife had been accompanied by economic distress. In the mid-1840s the nascent economy was depressed until the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s offered a market for foodstuffs to the New Zealand farmer, settler and Maori alike.

Sir George Grey, detail of an engraving by W.W. Alais, c. 1861. Courtesy of The Mitchell Library, Sydney By the end of the 1840s ethnic and economic trouble had given way to political agitation. The leading settlements, apart from Auckland, began to campaign for representative government in place of Grey’s personal rule. He, while refusing to give way, helped to draft the New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852, which was designed to meet all demands of the settlers. Grey sought not to prevent the introduction of self-government but to delay it until he had determined both native and land policy. He wanted to begin the rapid assimilation of the Maori (with whom his relations were excellent) to British social and cultural patterns and to introduce a land policy that would safeguard the small farmer against the large landowner. He believed he had secured these goals by the time of his departure at the end of 1853. Responsible government After the Constitution Act came into force in 1853, New Zealand was divided into six provinces—Auckland, New Plymouth (Taranaki), Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago—each with a superintendent and a provincial council.

The central government consisted of a governor and a two-chamber legislature (General Assembly): a Legislative Council nominated by the crown, and a House of Representatives elected upon a low property franchise for a five-year term. This General Assembly did not meet until 1854; it then embarked on a quarrel with the acting governor, Col. Robert Henry Wynyard, that was not ended until the achievement of full responsible government—i.e., a system under which the governor could act in domestic matters only upon the advice of ministers enjoying the confidence of the elected chamber. Henry Sewell and James FitzGerald, of Canterbury, led the representatives in this struggle; heading the opposition against them was Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who, having first moved the resolution for responsible government, then secretly opposed it while serving as extra-official adviser to the acting governor. The Colonial Office (which oversaw the government of Britain’s overseas territories) conceded responsible government in 1856. The next governor, Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Gore Browne, reserved Maori affairs to the control of the governor alone. For most purposes, during the 1850s New Zealand was administered not by central but by provincial institutions.

These authorities (10 in number by the time of their abolition in 1876) directly affected settlers through their administration of land and control of immigration and public works. The native department, directly under the governor, bought land from the Maori ; the provincial governments settled it, regulated immigration, and built roads and bridges. Until the wars of the 1860s, the central legislature was less important, though its ultimate authority remained. Each province made use of revenue arising from land sales and depended on that revenue for its strength. Canterbury and Otago, with small Maori populations, cultivated prosperity by spending that revenue on communications, immigration, and education. Other provinces were either less fortunate or less wise and enjoyed less success. In the North Island the numerous and anxious Maori held on to desirable land. Here most of the land available for settlement had been taken up by the end of the 1850s, a good deal of it by speculators, and some of it was given away to attract immigrants. The island remained largely without roads until the 1870s, so impecunious were its governments.

But by that time the major obstacle to settlement—the continuing power of the tribes—had been removed. This was the result of a decade of war. Ethnic conflict In the 1850s relations between settlers and Maori deteriorated. The settler population and the demand for land, especially pastoral land, increased. Many Maori, fearing for their future, became reluctant to sell more land. In the Taranaki province, where the land shortage was acute , both settlers and those Maori willing to sell were opposed by Wiremu Kingi (Te Rangitake), chief of Te Atiawa. In the Waikato, where good land was coveted by settlers and speculators, an elderly chief, Te Wherowhero, became “king” in 1858, largely through the support of the Waikato and Maniopoto tribes, and reigned as King Potatau I . The Maori King Movement and the unrest in the Taranaki headed by Wiremu Kingi (the two movements remained distinct though related) were opposed to further land sales.

Tukaroto Matutaera Potatau Te Wherowhero Tawhiao, the second Maori king (1860–94). Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-109768) The likelihood of conflict was not reduced by any particular wisdom in government policy. Gore Browne was guided in native policy by the head of the Native Land Purchase Department, Donald (later Sir Donald) McLean, who, responsive to settler demands, increased pressure on potential sellers. Grey’s caution and his recognition that a chief could veto sales proposed by any section of his tribe were forgotten. McLean sowed a rich harvest of distrust. Christopher Richmond, the member of the cabinet in charge of native affairs, was also a member of the House of Representatives from Taranaki and was fully responsive to the needs of his settler neighbours. The central ministry, theoretically unconcerned with native policy, could not, despite the promise of protection made to the Maori in the Treaty of Waitangi, neglect a matter so vital to the colony’s future.

In 1859 the representative of the crown unwittingly supplied the occasion for the outbreak of civil strife. Gore Browne accepted an offer to sell from a Taranaki subchief, Te Teira, and ignored the veto imposed by the paramount chief, Wiremu Kingi. Early in 1860 troops were used to dislodge Kingi from the land in question, the Waitara block. A decade of fighting began. In 1861 Grey was sent back for a second term as governor in the hope that he would again prove to be a peacemaker. In fact he accelerated the extension of conflict. Fearing that Auckland was menaced by the followers of the Maori king, he took defensive measures that could easily be interpreted as acts of aggression, and the fighting subsequently spread from Taranaki to the Waikato. Imperial troops, colonial militia, and Maori allies (for not all the tribes supported the Maori nationalist movement) had no easy task, but their victory could not be postponed for long. By the mid-1860s Maori resistance in the Taranaki and Waikato had ended.

But the “king” tribes were by no means crushed, and the fear that they would embark on war again haunted the colony for many years. In the later 1860s the fighting was of a different character, in which religion acted as a last, desperate stiffener of Maori resistance. Pai Marire ( Hauhauism ), an amalgam of Jewish, Christian, and native beliefs, was the first (1862) of many movements in which the Maori, rejecting the religion of settler and missionary, put their own imprint on Christianity. Toward the end of the decade, Te Kooti organized resistance on the east coast of the North Island. He was the founder of another religious movement as well as a guerrilla of some note; his adaptation of Christianity, Ringatu , still has numerous followers. Te Kooti was never finally defeated, but by the early 1870s he had been forced to retreat into the “King Country” (the centre of the island), and he devoted the rest of his life to religious leadership. An uneasy peace settled on the colony in 1870.

Casualties had not been high, but the loss of life was serious for the tribes concerned. Especially in those areas in which the Maori king retained some authority, defeat led to a period of withdrawal from settler society. Resentment was deepened by a punitive policy of land confiscation adopted by the victors, a policy improper in its nature and made worse in some places by undiscriminating application to “guilty” and “innocent” tribes alike. The Maori future looked bleak. By the Native Land Act of 1862, private land transactions between settler and Maori had been legalized, and during the next 40 years the Maori lost most of their best land. In 1867 four seats in the General Assembly were created for Maori members and Maori men gained the vote, but many years were to elapse before Maori numbers, morale, and confidence would revive throughout the country. Development of the colony Fluctuation of the economy Economic growth in the North Island had been considerably retarded by the wars. Meanwhile, the South Island, especially Canterbury and Otago, had grown increasingly prosperous.

Pastoral farming expanded steadily, and the discovery of gold, first in Otago and then on the west coast, led to a sudden boom in production and trade. Population rose when diggers poured in; economic life quickened as gold brought prosperity, less to the diggers than to bankers, merchants, land sellers, and farmers supplying provisions. The South Island share of the European population jumped from about 40 percent to 60 percent during the 1860s. The North Island did not recover its previous lead until the 20th century. Attempts by other provinces to emulate the development of Canterbury and Otago normally ended in embarrassment (in one case in bankruptcy) as money was recklessly borrowed and spent. To preserve the colony’s reputation, the central government in 1867 banned further provincial overseas borrowing. About that time economic depression struck the greater part of the country, especially the South Island, where the accessible alluvial gold had been worked out. The South Island was thus looking for a stimulus, while the ending of the wars now made further development possible in the North Island. It was widely agreed that only the central government could adequately revitalize the economy.

In 1870 a development policy was provided by Julius (later Sir Julius) Vogel , who at the time was colonial treasurer and who later served twice (1873–75; 1876) as premier. He was convinced (not altogether accurately) that New Zealand was bursting with potential resources needing no more than the stimulus of capital and labour for their exploitation. He borrowed overseas capital for public works on an unprecedented scale and swelled the labour force with British immigrants whose passage had been subsidized by the government. Not all of Vogel’s schemes were wisely conceived; the prosperity of the mid-1870s was more an investment boom than a solid growth of productivity. But the colony ended the decade with a doubled population (about 500,000) and the beginnings of efficient internal and external communications. Roads, bridges, railways, and telegraph systems had been built and overseas shipping services improved. Private lending agencies contributed to the boom; in a heady atmosphere land values and interest rates climbed alarmingly. The public debt greatly increased, and many people who had acquired land were in desperate financial straits.

Falling overseas prices for farm products (chiefly wool and wheat), a declining gold output, retrenchment by the government, and widespread unemployment marked the 1880s. Immigrant ships discharged their passengers at ports where unemployment was already rife. There had been growth in the 1870s, but it was succeeded by a depression that lasted until 1895. Vogel abolished the provincial governments in 1876. They had earned his enmity by refusing to allow their lands to be used as security for public works and by blocking a forest-conservation scheme. Essentially, they had become outmoded when in the early 1870s the initiative in development passed to the central government. Provincial governments had been set up to colonize their districts; when the centre assumed this function, they lost their raison d’être. Abolition came fairly painlessly; it was an affront more to local pride than to local prosperity. Only in Otago was there a strong attempt to resist change. Thereafter, provincial interests were long pursued by the respective delegates in the General Assembly, whose achievements were in no way diminished by the lack of particularist (provincial) institutions.

The governments of the 1880s, though led by men of some ability and imagination, such as Sir Robert Stout and Sir Harry Atkinson , did not deal effectively with the depression. The time-honoured remedy, spending loan money on development, was not fully given up until 1887. The basic problem was to find productive work for the country’s labour force; closer land settlement was the remedy suggested in the 1880s and applied in the 1890s. Great areas, especially in the South Island, had fallen to large owners; these “monopolists” were attacked by the radicals, though probably the pastoral industry could not have been established under any other system. William Rolleston, minister of lands in the early 1880s, first proposed that the state help men to become small farmers as state tenants ; John (later Sir John) McKenzie and the Liberal government applied that remedy with vigour in the 1890s. But closer settlement and intensive farming did not of themselves create economic benefits, which in fact could not accrue until small farmers had a product to export and gained a good price for that product. Refrigeration and rising world prices provided the answer.

It became possible in the 1880s to send to Great Britain refrigerated cargoes of butter, cheese, and meat; this encouraged the spread of small-scale intensive farming. The Liberal era (1891–1912) The energetic Liberal government led by John Ballance , which took office in 1891, accelerated the process of change. It opened more land (much of it bought from the Maori), established farmers on perpetual state leaseholds, provided credit for land purchase and improvements, and built roads. So came into existence great dairying and meat-producing areas, especially in the North Island. Prices for dairy and meat, as well as for wool, rose about 1895 and stayed generally high until about 1920. John Ballance, statue outside the Parliamentary Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Greg O’Beirne Map of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, including New Zealand, c. 1902, from the atlas of the … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. This economic stimulus was not limited to farmers.

Urban distress had been serious in the 1880s, for many recent immigrants had been townspeople who had stayed in New Zealand towns on arrival. The ultimate cure for their distress was for the towns to share in the farmers’ high prices. Urban New Zealand depended on the prosperity of the country. But other remedies were considered, and some of them were applied. In the 1880s there was serious discussion of insurance against sickness, poverty, and old age; the Old Age Pensions Act of 1898 was the first measure of social security. Tariff protection to foster industrial employment was halfheartedly applied in the late 1880s. Revelations of oppression in industry led in the 1890s to a labour code to protect workers. The chief Liberal industrial policy, however, formulated by William Pember Reeves , minister of labour from 1892 to 1896, was to encourage trade unions and to introduce, in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894, a conciliation and compulsory arbitration system intended to end industrial unrest and give the unions the means of protecting their members.

The growth of unions was stimulated by the fact that only through them could the workers use the system. Reeves’s act, amended and occasionally suspended but still essentially his own handiwork, remained in effect until the late 1960s. It enabled the worker in good times to resist wage cuts and to press for increases, but it did not manage to prevent cuts and unemployment when falling overseas prices brought depression to New Zealand. It was not strikingly radical in effect; employers and governments used it to break strikes, such as that of miners at Waihi in 1912. It built up the power of those majority elements in the unions that preferred coming to terms with capitalism to any effort to destroy it. Some occupations, such as transport, cargo handling, meat processing, and mining, fostered unions keen to relinquish arbitration for direct action, but they were in a minority and were seldom successful in the long run. The Liberal era, from 1891 to 1912, transformed political life. Previously politics had not been marked by neat party divisions.

Local advantage had determined political behaviour in the development period during and after the 1870s; voters had argued over the scope and details of policies and had advanced the claims of locality and province for a proper share of largesse. Acute economic depression ended development and with it the politics of local advantage. In 1890 the Liberals began to act as a more or less unified party. But perhaps the most significant political change was the winning of the franchise by women in 1893 after a campaign of more than two decades. The Liberals’ 20 years in office, the success of their land and labour policies, and the formidable qualities of leadership discovered in Richard John Seddon , premier from 1893 to his death in 1906, welded the Liberals into a fairly coherent parliamentary and popular party. Seddon was a portent of a new age. In 1893 this energetic goldfields-trader-turned-politician provided a sharp contrast to the gentlemanly premiers who had preceded him. But his crudeness assisted rather than hindered his popularity.

He was devoted to political success and skilled in the manipulation of the means of success—parliamentary procedure, patronage, and party organization. By the time of his death, he had established a kind of elective despotism over the country. Richard John Seddon. William Hosking Oliver New Zealand since 1900 Seddon’s successors, in his own and in other parties, were of the same stamp—men of the people devoted to a political career. Politics ceased to be a duty of the well-to-do amateur. The Liberal government, under Sir Joseph Ward , survived Seddon by six years. In 1912 it fell before a new party, the New Zealand Political Reform League (usually called the Reform Party), led by a dairy farmer, William Ferguson Massey , who served as prime minister until 1925. Based on prospering farmers and townspeople, especially of the North Island, and closely connected with their professional organizations, it was more narrowly sectional than the Liberals had been. Except for views borrowed from the Liberals, it had little positive policy. Reform made much of a promise to enable the state leaseholder to buy the freehold of his farm at original valuation.

That promise was an emotional rallying cry for conservatives fearing land nationalization and complete socialism. Only a small minority of farmers were state tenants, and not all bought the freehold when the Reform government gave them the chance. William Massey, detail from an oil painting by W. Orpen, 1919; in the National Portrait Gallery, … Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London While the Liberals lost support in rural areas, they were further weakened by urban left-wing defections, which eventually led to a separate Labour Party . The initiative, on the right and on the left, was passing to other parties, and the Liberals were gradually eclipsed. The period before World War I was one of discontent and anxiety. Prosperity, though still considerable, had somewhat declined. The farmers were disturbed by what they took to be the threat of socialism, detected in the radicalism of a Liberal minority but chiefly in the rebirth of direct action in some trade unions. That change in temper arose from labour’s dissatisfaction with wage levels achieved under arbitration and from the growth of syndicalist and socialist ideas. After 1906 the Arbitration Court refused to grant further increases of real wages.

Discontent flared up in the strikes of 1912–13, the biggest occurring on the waterfront when the farmers’ government, headed by Massey, repressed a movement that had overtones of revolution. Nationalism and war By the late 19th century many New Zealanders were coming to regard themselves as a new nation. Most of those of European background had been born in New Zealand and had no memories of or nostalgia for Britain, often called “home.” In the 1890s New Zealand Natives Associations were established by native-born European New Zealanders. Success in sports, especially rugby, spurred national pride. An even greater influence was war. New Zealanders served on the British side during the South African War (1899–1902), during which time they earned a reputation as being superior to the British at fighting a guerrilla war. World War I greatly stimulated national sentiment . During the warfare at Gallipoli , Turkey, and later in France , New Zealanders proved to be excellent soldiers. But while the war boosted nationalist sentiment among both troops and civilians, the price was terrible: nearly one of every three men between the ages of 20 and 40 was killed or wounded.

The loss in leadership in the following years was considerable. At home the war brought prosperity, as export markets were assured and prices good. Domestic unity was only slightly shaken by the antiwar feeling of a faction on the political left. Massey remained prime minister, but, in the wartime coalition government (1915–19), Ward and the Liberals carried great weight. The Reform Party stayed in office until 1928, led after Massey’s death in 1925 by Joseph Gordon Coates . The party survived the first postwar economic depression but not that of the mid-1920s. Led by Ward, the Liberals, under the new name of the United Party , were victorious in 1928; they thus had to face the deepening depression of 1929–30. After Ward’s death (1930) and at the height of the depression, Reform and United formed a new coalition (1931) under the premiership of George Forbes , which lasted until the election of 1935 brought in a Labour government. Some postwar developments were of great importance.

In external affairs Massey led a delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and signed the Treaty of Versailles and so committed New Zealand to membership in the League of Nations . New Zealand thus began to acquire the status of a sovereign state, though Massey denied this consequence. The Liberals, especially Seddon, had already taken steps toward autonomy within the empire. At the series of colonial and imperial conferences from 1887 onward, New Zealand had followed Canada and Australia in asserting its right to a voice in certain foreign policy issues. Seddon argued vehemently against British reluctance to acquire more Pacific islands while permitting German influence to grow in Samoa . New Zealand legislation to restrict Asian immigration was sharply and obstinately at variance with British policy. Western Samoa (now Samoa ), which New Zealand had captured from the Germans in 1914 and over which it was granted a mandate in 1920, also provided occasions for British and New Zealand differences. Reform leaders professed little love for the principle of Commonwealth autonomy. New Zealand took a passive part in the conferences leading to the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and did not adopt it until 1947. But the substance of autonomy had been enjoyed before.

The major domestic achievement of the Reform administration was a system of export-marketing agencies in which authority was shared by producer and state. That system laid the foundations of a collectivist marketing structure. J.G. Coates was the most energetic minister in Forbes’s coalition government. His attempts to counter depression concentrated on the farmer in order to revive the country. To increase export receipts, he devalued the New Zealand pound. He also protected farmers against foreclosure and set up a credit agency. When overseas prices began to recover in 1934, the country was financially strong, but little had been done for the unemployed. Conditions in towns and relief camps led to rioting, violence, and widespread discontent, all of which were favourable to the Labour Party. The Labour Party had been formed by socialist and radical groups in 1916. During the 1920s it was predominant only in working-class electorates. In its quest for votes, however, Labour increasingly abandoned its socialist theories and adopted welfare and credit-reform proposals, which had wider appeal. In the election of 1935 Labour won a considerable victory; successful in the towns, the party also won in many rural areas.

Prices for dairy exports were slowest to recover, and many dairy farmers were drawn by Labour promises of a guaranteed price. The victory was particularly notable in terms of seats, for a right-wing third party (the Democrat Party) split the conservative vote to Labour’s advantage. The National Party, successor to the coalition, was rendered temporarily ineffective. The new ministers, among whom the most notable were Peter Fraser and Walter Nash , showed great energy. Led by Michael Joseph Savage , they had the good fortune to govern a country to which prosperity was returning. The farmer enjoyed increased earnings; the worker, increased wages and shorter hours. Jobs were multiplied by a public works and housing program. The education system was revitalized. In 1938 the Social Security Act provided a state medical service, extended the pension system, and increased benefits. The expansion of secondary industry was accelerated after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Peter Fraser New Zealand Regions Buy data Donate Updates: On 2015-11-27, ISO issued an update to the ISO 3166-2 codes for New Zealand. It recognizes the same seventeen divisions that I have listed.

According to ISO, they are all regions except that Chatham Islands is a special island authority. The codes for the North and South Island have been withdrawn. Auckland has become a unitary authority. On 2014-11-03, an update to ISO 3166-2 showed the new status. Update 4 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2011-04-30. It has a new FIPS code for Tasman unitary authority. Newsletter II-2, an update to the ISO 3166-2 standard, is dated 2010-06-30. It assigns an ISO code to Chatham Islands. It also gives the status of each subdivision (regional council, etc.), as listed below under Primary subdivisions. The regions are mainly for purposes of environmental management, and their capitals (the location of the main regional council offices) are not hugely significant. The regional council for Manawatu-Wanganui region is called the Horizons Regional Council, and that for Canterbury is called Environment Canterbury, or ECan for short. FIPS Publication Change Notice No.

10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns new FIPS codes to the current divisions of New Zealand, superseding the county codes formerly in effect. International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For New Zealand, the draft standard showed 14 regions. The final standard shows 16. This corresponds to an administrative change that took place in 1992. Nelson-Marlborough region was divided into several pieces, which were absorbed into neighboring regions or became new regions. The new regions were Nelson, Marlborough, and Tasman; Tasman also annexed part of West Coast region. Country overview: New Zealand uses four-digit postal codes. Further subdivisions: See the Districts of New Zealand page. On the secondary level, New Zealand is divided into fifteen cities, 58 districts, and the Chatham Islands, collectively referred to as territorial authorities. There are some territorial authorities that overlap two regions. A complete explanation of New Zealand's territorial structures would fill a book.

North Island and South Island have always been recognized as a partition, although they don't correspond to any of the usual administrative structures. The divisions shown above represent the present state of an evolutionary process. They began as provinces (prior to 1876), became provincial districts, lost their administrative functions, became statistical areas in 1961, local government regions in ~1982, and regions in 1989. The regions are responsible for certain environmental issues, transportation, and civil defense. The New Zealand Department of Statistics also tracks population in statistical divisions and main urban areas, but some parts of New Zealand are not in any statistical division or main urban area; some main urban areas are within a statistical division, and some are not. Since 1876, the secondary administrative divisions have had various statuses: initially counties and cities, currently districts and cities. On the average, the counties/districts have been much smaller than the provinces/regions. However, especially in the North Island, there are overlaps: not every district is entirely contained in one region. There are other local governments, called special purpose authorities.

On the level below the counties, there are 159 community boards (only serving some areas of the country), whose function is simply to advise the district councils. There are also wards, some of which coincide with community boards. Territorial extent: The bulk of each region lies on either the North or South Island, as shown in the table above. Auckland includes most of the islands in Hauraki Gulf, such as Great Barrier, Waiheke, Little Barrier, Rangitoto, Motutapu, Ponui, and Kawau. Bay of Plenty includes Motiti, White, and Whale Islands. Chatham Islands includes Chatham Island (Rekohua), Pitt Island (Rangiauria), and some smaller islets. Marlborough includes many small islands in the Cook Strait, such as D'Urville and Arapawa Islands. Northland includes the Hen and Chickens Group, Poor Knights Islands, and some other coastal islets. Southland includes Stewart, Ruapuke, Resolution, Codfish, Solander, and many smaller islands. Tasman includes Rabbit and Adele Islands. Waikato includes the Mercury Islands and Cuvier Island. Wellington includes Kapiti and Mana Islands.

New Zealand includes some remote island groups which are not part of any region. The Kermadec Islands are grouped with North Island for statistical purposes. The Antipodes Islands, Campbell Island, the Auckland Islands, Three Kings, Snares, and Bounty Islands are grouped with South Island. For additional information, see source [3]. New Zealand administers Tokelau as a territory overseas. It maintains a claim to Ross Dependency in Antarctica. It also has relationships of free association with its former territories of Cook Islands and Niue. On this website, following the ISO standard, these all have separate listings (see Antarctica, Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau). Samoa is a former trust territory. for New Zealand lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: Auckland: named by Captain William Hobson in gratitude to Lord Auckland, former First Lord of the Admiralty Bay of Plenty: named by Captain Cook to mark the Maori inhabitants' successful cultivation of the adjoining land Canterbury: named for Canterbury Cathedral by colonists sponsored in part by the Archbishop of Canterbury Chatham Islands: discovered by Lieutenant W. R.

Broughton, commanding the vessel Chatham Hawke's Bay: named by Captain Cook in honor of Edward Hawke, First Lord of the Admiralty Marlborough: after John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), British commander at Blenheim (whence the name of the capital of this region) Nelson: after Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), British commander at Trafalgar Taranaki: the Maori name for Mount Egmont Tasman: after the Tasman Sea, the Tasman Bay, and Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman Waikato: Maori wai: water, kato: strong Wanganui: from Maori wanga: harbor, nui: big Wellington: after Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), British commander at Waterloo Change history: 1846: Sir George Grey, the British governor, established two provinces: New Ulster and New Munster. They were separated by the 40th parallel South. Consequently, New Munster contained the entire South Island and part of the North Island.

1853: The New Zealand Constitution Act took effect, dividing New Zealand into six provinces (with capitals): Auckland (Auckland), Canterbury (Christchurch), Nelson (Nelson), New Plymouth (New Plymouth), Otago (Dunedin), and Wellington (Wellington). Auckland, New Plymouth, and part of Wellington replaced New Ulster. 1858-11-01: Hawke's Bay province (capital Napier) split from Wellington. 1859-01-01: Name of New Plymouth province, but not its capital, changed to Taranaki. 1859-11-01: Marlborough province (capital Picton) split from Nelson. 1861-04-01: Southland province (capital Invercargill) split from Otago. 1863: Stewart Island annexed to Southland province. 1865: Capital of New Zealand moved from Auckland to Wellington. 1865-07: Capital of Marlborough province moved from Picton to Blenheim. 1870-10-06: Southland province merged with Otago again.

1873-12-01: Westland province (capital Hokitika) split from Canterbury (it had been a county of Canterbury province since 1868-01-01). 1876: Provinces abolished in favor of the central government. 1911: New Zealand consisted of nine provincial districts, as shown here. Otago was further subdivided into Otago portion and Southland portion. Source [5] calls them provinces in 1960. Source [5] also shows twelve "land districts" whose boundaries lie disconcertingly close to the province boundaries. District 268,471 Population: 1911 census 1961: Status of provincial districts changed to statistical areas. Auckland split into Central Auckland, East Coast, Northland, and South Auckland-Bay of Plenty. Parts of Nelson transferred to Canterbury and Westland. 1974: New Zealand reorganized from 13 statistical areas into 22 local government regions, under the Local Government Act of 1974. The local government regions are shown in this table.

Region Population: 1981-03-24 census Isl: (N)orth or (S)outh Island 1989-11-01: New Zealand reorganized from 22 local government regions into 14 regional councils. By comparison with the older statistical areas, Nelson was split, its southern part merging with Westland, its northern part with Marlborough to form Nelson-Marlborough; Manawatu-Wanganui split from Wellington; South Auckland-Bay of Plenty split into Bay of Plenty and Waikato; name of Central Auckland changed to Auckland; name of East Coast changed to Gisborne; and almost all borders were adjusted to conform to major watersheds, since the new regions had environmental responsibilities. 1992: Marlborough district, Nelson city, and Tasman district became regions. At the same time, Nelson-Marlborough region (old ISO code NSB) was abolished; its orphaned areas in Hurunui and Kaikoura districts were transferred to Canterbury region; and West Coast region lost its part of Tasman district. 2010-11-01: Status of Auckland changed from region to unitary authority.

At the same time, there was a minor adjustment to its southern boundary. Other names of subdivisions:

Question: What is name of the strait that divides New Zealand into Northern and Southern parts?
Answer: Cook Strait